THE NATIONAL - Sleep Well Beast (2017), listens #2-3

The way time fell this week, I ended up listening a third time before getting around to writing anything up.  Hence the minor break from the usual format of real-ish time reactions to spins #1 and #2.  Hey, as long as I do three posts on Sleep Well Beast, the overall approach to blogging about a record as I absorb it remains the same.

I remember when the third listen was a bit of a task for some of the early National records.  It was exciting to be done with listen number three of the self-titled, so I could stop writing about it and listen to something else.  (As mentioned before, three is my usual magic number before I say I "know" a piece of music; the stuff that clearly isn't for me might not survive on my list to even make it to three spins, of course.)  I don't think I ever had any doubt that Sleep Well Beast would be getting at least four, and more likely five or six full runthroughs before I'll be satisfied that I've gotten everything I want out of it.  This is the expectation now with the National.  One could split hairs about whether the records have gotten better or whether I've become a bigger appreciator as I got to know the band - but there's no secret there, it's both.  That did get me musing a bit about whether I'm a fan, if not a rabid die-hard, "just" because I've committed to numerous listens and close analysis of everything for the sake of this writing project, ensuring time to grow on me.  Would another band that I care for less get better with this sort of scrutiny?  I don't know that it's really all that interesting a hypothetical.  A piece of art getting better as one spends time with it, rewarding study and unveiling new things to appreciate, is, after all, the way culture works.  I think I've made it clear in other posts the particular things that I think the National do well, and those skill sets are unique to them.  And I think I spent more time with Boxer than with, say, Cherry Tree, because I like Boxer way better.

Sleep Well Beast is certainly rewarding that kind of "study" right now, making a little more sense each time through.  One thing I of course noticed was that the hum of constant electronic orchestration in the background doesn't actually start with "Walk It Back."  It's just that in "Nobody Else Will Be There" the dominant instrument is the piano, and, well, the song is a very typical National opener in its style.  "Day I Die" is enough of a Strokes-style rock song that whatever noises the synths are making remain a background element.  On the other hand, "Walk It Back" is impossible to ignore.  All beat at first, with the withdrawn narrator doing almost spoken-word, taking his time even threatening to break into a vocal melody... and then constantly dropping back into monotone as though he is actually cutting himself off from something every time he says the line "I better cut this off."  That is a song that demands attention.  I don't really get the audio clip in the middle, although at least that's another way in which "Walk It Back" doesn't sound quite like anything they've done prior.

I'd already pegged "The System Only Dreams In Total Darkness" as the other big early standout even before learning that it's my brother's favorite on the record.  Those guitar licks dropping in at the end of lines provide a punchy counterpoint to what's almost a dance beat.  I'm not one for endless instrumental noodling, but how great is it to have an honest-to-gods old fashioned guitar solo in a National song that rocks this much?  This record's best unexpected counterpoint comes in the "I cannot explain it" parts of TSODITDF.  I don't actually even know if that's Matt singing that bit, and if so, he's going outside his usual.  And if asked to pick a third highlight tune, I'm going to do an odd thing and actually praise some Berniger lyrics - he occasionally remembers that there is a place for simplicity.  You could say some flowery bullshit, or, when you're doing a more stripped back track in which the lyrics are important, you can be plain spoken: "I say your name/I say I'm sorry/I know it's not working."  So, yeah, I'm appreciating "Guilty Party" a lot for that reason.

Sleep feels like the sort of record that's going to have more favorites.  I'm not quite there yet with most of the others, while still being interested in listening to them again.  I'm not quite sure which of the slower choruses will become earworms, and whether they'll be pleasant or annoying ones (I could see "Dark Side Of The Gym" becoming the latter, I'm afraid).  I am pretty confident that at least one song is going to be the big slow grower the way "The Geese Of Beverly Road" and "Start A War" were for me, since there's always at least one of those.  Potential candidates include: 

- the aformentioned "Day I Die," was my really early pick for favorite just because of my rock proclivities, so let's keep it on the list

- "Turtleneck" because as much as I kinda don't like the affected vocals on the pre-chorus, the big soaring chorus is undeniable.  Shades of someone like the Strokes again, or maybe Arcade Fire

- "I'll Still Destroy You" for the xylophone-based beat - it's a good beat.  On last listen I smiled twice, once at the beat and once when I finally put together that the "you" is the narrator's kid; it's a twisted version of an inspirational dad song, coming from a dad who's terrified of his weaknesses.   beats and.  (And the title track does appear to hit some of the same themes, which would explain the repeated lyrics.)

.  "Sleep Well Beast" is a little monotone for me, but it's built on a weird soundscape that ought to be lively but is presented in a vaguely disturbing manner that I'm grooving on, plus it saves the record from being a bore post-"Guilty Party."

Anyway, I'm not in a hurry to declare final winners.  I want to spend lots more time with this one.

Favorite track:  "The System Only Dreams In Total Darkness"

Runner up:  "Walk It Back"

Least favorite track:  "Born To Beg"

Preliminary rating: 4/5

Thoughts on listens #4  and beyond whenever I get around to it!